The invention relates to a film transporting mechanism for a motion picture camera equipped with transporting claws disposed on both sides of a center plane for engagement in two rows of perforations of a film to be transported in steps past a picture window, with each transporting claw being driven by its own transporting drive so that its tip or tips traverse an elongate, closed curve which at its end enters into the travelling plane of the film and leaves it again at the other end, and both transporting drives have at least one common shaft to drive them. Such a film transporting mechanism is disclosed, for example, in DE-OS 3,101,813. This or similar film transporting mechanisms have the drawback that the individual parts of the transporting drives for both sprocket elements are arranged between two bearing plates which serve to support the drive shaft or shafts. This configuration imposes limitations with respect to the structural configuration of individual elements of the transporting drives which can thus not be selected optimally for best possible wear resistance, balancing, quiet running and ease of maintenance. Regarding the possibilities of assembly and maintenance of the two transporting drives, one drawback is already that assembly and the possibly needed disassembly and subsequent re-assembly between the two bearing plates become difficult and time consuming.